1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a PC card connector mounted on an apparatus into which are inserted two PC cards in use, and more particularly to a PC card connector including a number of pin contacts inserted and soldered to a board.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, there is known a PC card connector of the type fitting two PC cards to one connector.
Such a PC card connector primarily comprises, as shown in FIG. 14, a first group of pins 1 to which one PC card (not shown) is stuck and plugged in the direction of arrow, a first board 3 having insertion holes 2 into which the first group of pins 1 are inserted and fixedly soldered, a second group of pins 4 to which the other PC card (not shown) is stuck and plugged in the direction of arrow, a second board 6 having insertion holes 5 into which the second group of pins 4 are inserted and fixedly soldered, and a conversion connector 8 having grooves 7 into which lower edges of the first board 3 and the second board 6 are fitted and fixedly soldered.
Denoted by 9 is a shroud (metal plate) held in contact with a case of the PC card for grounding (earthing). Two shrouds 9 are disposed respectively along upper edges of the first and second boards 3, 6 and connected to ground patterns on the boards 3, 6. The first and second boards 3, 6 are each a two-layer board with the ground pattern and a signal pattern formed in respective layers.
Further, the first and second boards 3, 6 are arranged side by side in vertical posture, as viewed on the drawing, and the two PC cards are inserted in the horizontal direction. Accordingly, the second board 6 is formed to have a shorter vertical length than the first board 3 such that the first and second groups of pins 1, 4 are both exposed leftward.
In the above conventional PC card connector, however, the use of two bards necessarily results in that the pins 1, 4 and the shrouds 9 must be soldered to the boards 3, 6 as at least two separate steps in the process of assembling the PC card connector. In other words, because soldering cannot be performed on the two boards 3, 6 at a time, the conventional PC card connector requires a larger number of assembly steps.
Also, because the conversion connector 8 must receive the two boards 3, 6, it has a difficulty in manufacture.
Further, because of using the two boards 3, 6, a gap is required to be left between both the boards 3 and 6, which increases the entire size of the connector.
Additionally, although back surfaces of the boards 3, 6 are entirely used as ground surfaces, the areas of the boards 3, 6, in particular, the area of one board 6, is too small to achieve a sufficient grounding effect.